Buying a For Sale By Owner Home From private seller Zillow Trulia yard sign ad or a FSBO site

Shopping for a Home in the Orlando area and considering a for sale by owner? Is it more challenging? What should you expect?

While shopping for a home online you can see, many homes listed by real estate company’s realtors. Just a click away on Zillow or Trulia and you can encounter homes listed as FSBO or fizbo in realtor talk. Or you may even have a friend at work advertising his/her home on a bulletin board and offering to sell you their home directly.

While initially buying a home without a realtor may seem to be beneficial that actually is not true. Here are some things to keep in mind when looking or thinking about a for sale by owner.

   When faced with the option of selling or not most sellers will work with your agent.

If not is this the best situation to enter into? Probably not for a litany of reasons. Smart sellers will commonly go ahead and include a possible buyer’s agent commission into the deal. After all most buyers are aware that buying a home once every five or ten years does not make them as good at buying homes as someone who does it multiple times a year.  

Buyer’s agents also have better tools at their disposal and are (or should be) better at researching areas, local knowledge and the entire offering, acceptance, inspection, financing, title research final financial acceptance and dealing with unexpected problems and lender demands until the final closing. Oh, and buy the way being a buffer between often angry buyers and sellers during the process.

So in a nutshell if you see a FSBO you really like contact me or have your agent reach out and make the first/initial contact. Many FSBO’s add into their advertisements “will cooperate with local agents”. Or something to that effect.

One bit of advice. If you see a FSBO and read the description and determine the tone is unfriendly toward Realtors. Be Cautious. However Normally that is not the case.

If you locate a home in a great location and it happens to look perfect for you just think of it as another potential home for you. It may end up being your dream home!

One reason intelligent buyers use Realtors is that the buyer realizes that this is a huge transaction. People are making/have made large investments both emotionally and financially. So often during negotiation those emotions surface. If you choose to have a detached person that is experienced in this represent you then join the crowd of experienced buyers.

This is IMPORTANT! The Laws Governing Real Estate Transactions Still Apply to FSBO.

The owner still has the obligation to disclose know defects and problems to the home buyer, you still have a right to have the home inspected. Do you want your realtor to be at the inspection? Do you want the owner to shadow the inspector?

Is the seller insistent on having it or “doing it” his/her way? Did the owner used to be an agent? Is the owner an attorney? Ask the hard questions and trust your gut. If it does not feel right maybe it is not. A Realtor exists for a reason. By enlarge people have learned using one is the preferred.

Who is confirming pricing on the house? Or was pricing the reason it became a FSBO?

Unfortunately, is far too common today for agents to accept listings that are priced to high. If they won’t another agent will. Or the owner will attempt to sell FSBO. A lot of homes over the median price in areas are still underwater. Meaning the owner owes more than the house is worth. Or the owner is just unrealistic about the house’s value. That leads to problems. When a realtor lists a home the realtor should make sure adequate funds area available to complete the transaction. That occasionally effects seller’s as well.

Nearly 90% of homes currently FSBO will end up listing with an agent. A final fact to keep in mind.

Below are Homes For Sale In Windermere Florida